it isn’t that i believe that breaking the law is ok. i don’t. they are there for a reason. in terms of immigration my assumption it has something to do with safety. of course i have a raging leftie friend who swears that the social construction of borders is simply to create an “us” vs “them” mentality. but i put that aside for the moment…

my support of the boycott today has much more to do with the arbitrary nature of our immigration policies, our arbitrary vilification of illegal immigrants and not those that employ/profit from their work.

sure, a lot of different issues all jumbled up, but important none the less.

we have cheap fruit, cheaper houses, cheap labor in restaurants and hotels because we…americans…hire illiegal immigrants. i find it amusing that we are disgusted with the idea that others would come over and work but are eager to profit from that illegal work.

to loftier political issues…some countries just have an easier time coming over. talk to a haitian and see what kind of reception she got in her intake process…talk to an iranian. and ther are any number of arguments against letting people in…but those very arguments test the fabric of the american dream turned myth. “bring us your tired and your weary” unless of course we don’t like the country they are fleeing from…or we think there are too many of you hear already.

of course there is a burden on our delicate systems…and that needs to be addressed. but 12 million illegal immigrants aren’t the reason our domestic and international spending are out of control or the reason our medical system has spiralled out of control.

equally…no matter what folks might think they want (wait until prices start inching up…it would affect prices like gas does) we can’t afford to ship every single illegal immigrant home. it isn’t practical. so why not concentrate on the actual issues…

reexamining our current immigration laws and look for a way to integrate those already here into the system.

and in the process…i hope we remember that with the exception of the native americans…we were all immigrants once…